Trump Administration Memo: Preferred Funding to Communities with High Birth Rates
1.30.25
Read for a brief summary, or click to skip ahead: Pro-Natalist Propaganda reveals a Department of Transportation memo calling for preferential funding for communities with higher birth rates.
All Eyes On Equal Protection reports that yet another state, Texas, has introduced a bill that would punish abortion patients as murderers.
In RFK Confirmation Shit Show, Democrats hold Kennedy’s feet to the fire on mifepristone’s safety.
Stats & Studies looks at a new poll showing most Trump voters don’t believe he’ll restrict abortion and don’t want him to.
Legislation Watch reports that five states are proposing legislation that claims abortion medication and fetal remains are poisoning the groundwater.
In the Nation, a few last quick hits.
Pro-Natalist Propaganda
In today’s edition of what the fuck, Trump’s new transportation secretary, Sean Duffy (yes, that Sean Duffy) sent out a memo to staff about “rescinding ‘woke’ DEI policies.” In it, he directs them to prioritize and give preferential funding to “communities with marriage and birth rates higher than the national average.”
I am not usually one for Handmaid’s Tale comparisons, but this is definitely giving Commander Duffy vibes:
The memo is a good reminder that conservatives’ strategy is to inundate us with horror after horror while sneaking in weirdo misogynist policies that they think we won’t notice. It also makes clear that Trump’s anti-DEI witch-hunt is directly tied to attacks on abortion rights—and we should treat it that way.
All Eyes On ‘Equal Protection’
Remember when I told you a couple of weeks ago that four states had proposed bills that would make having an abortion punishable as a homicide? Well, a fifth state just joined the fray.
A Texas Republican has introduced the “Prenatal Equal Protection Act,” the exact legislation that the anti-abortion ‘abolitionists’ have been lobbying for around the country. It’s not expected to pass, but if it did, having an abortion could be punishable by the death penalty.
Texas Rep. Brent Money says his legislation has more than a dozen co-sponsors, throwing a wrench in Republicans’ claims that people who want to punish women are outliers or rare extremists.
It was just a few days ago that Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick gave an interview where he said that it’s just “a few people somewhere” who want to charge abortion patients with murder. “They don’t speak for Republicans…You’re not going to punish women, that’s ridiculous,” he said.
What Patrick didn’t mention, of course, is that the GOP platform in Texas includes a call for ‘equal protection’—language lobbied for by the very same ‘abolitionists’ who drafted this latest bill.
Rep. Money told reporters that he’d want to talk to Patrick about his position and explain that there would be a reduction in the number of abortions through the “deterrence factor.”
“Right now, my wife has been a volunteer for many years at a crisis pregnancy center, and there are many, many young women who are in a situation where they're being pressured to have an abortion.”
And what better way to ‘help’ a woman being pressured into abortion than to threaten her with the electric chair!
RFK Confirmation Shit Show
Today was the second day of RFK’s confirmation hearing, where there wasn’t quite as much about abortion as yesterday. When the issue came up, Kennedy mostly repeated the same talking point: that he’d implement whatever policies Donald Trump wants.
Democratic senators, however, held Kennedy’s feet to the fire: Sen. Bernie Sanders blasted the HHS nominee for “flip-flopping” on abortion, Sen. Patty Murray questioned him about his sexual assault allegations, and Sen. Tammy Baldwin hit Kennedy with an incredible line of questioning on the safety of mifepristone.
Sen. Baldwin essentially asked Kennedy—how many studies showing that mifepristone is safe do you need before you’ll believe it?
“If we were to talk about peer-reviewed reputable studies of a medication, would you say you needed 10 trusted studies to get the same conclusion? Fifteen? Twenty trusted studies? What’s your number? Is it safe to assume on hundred studies that are replicable and peer-reviewed are enough?”
Watch a clip of the exchange below:
As head of the Department of Health and Human Services, Kennedy would have the ability to accomplish quite a lot for the anti-abortion movement. Because remember, conservatives made clear in Project 2025 that they’re relying on HHS to implement a good chunk of their anti-abortion policies. I mean, seriously, they want to rename it the ‘Department of Life’! From Abortion, Every Day’s Project 2025 explainer:
“Under this new name, the government would track women’s pregnancies, including abortions, miscarriages and stillbirths; dismantle sex education; replace birth control programs with ‘fertility awareness’ and marriage promotion programs; allow employers to refuse birth control coverage; allow healthcare providers and pharmacists to refuse to dispense medication they morally oppose; and divert child care funding into programs that push women to stay at home.”
We also know that the Trump administration has already checked off quite a few Project 2025 boxes—from reinstating the global gag rule to working to repeal the FACE Act.
So whether Kennedy is confirmed or not, you can be sure that Trumpworld assholes have their plans for HHS ready.
If you missed my reporting yesterday, Kennedy dropped clues about the administration’s possible attacks on abortion rights—including one that indicates Trump would sign a national abortion ban if it was framed as a restriction on ‘late’ abortion:
Stats & Studies
You all know I love a good PerryUndem poll! (Remember their 2024 poll that found most Americans support abortion throughout pregnancy? I do!)
The group’s latest report is well worth a read. There’s a ton in there, but it was two things in particular that stood out: 1) Most Trump voters don’t believe he will further restrict abortion and don’t want him to, and 2) Anti-abortion groups are very unpopular, even among Trump voters.
Let’s start with Trump voters: 72% don’t believe the president will try to pass a national restriction on abortion, and 78% say they don’t think his administration will use Comstock to ban abortions.
What’s more, 62% of Trump voters want him to ensure that “federal government officials stay out of people’s decisions and access to abortion,” and 64% said if he picked a new Supreme Court justice, they would not want him to appoint someone who opposes abortion.
And while most Republican respondents said the issue doesn’t make a difference in the way they vote, PerryUndem also found that Republican women’s votes may be shifting: In 2022, 53% of Republican women said they were more likely to vote for antiabortion candidates, but by this past December, that number had dropped to 45%.
Another interesting stat? Most respondents believe that most Americans are pro-choice, with 70% saying they’d guess that the majority of the country supports abortion rights. That’s important, because what we believe (and how we vote) is impacted by what we think our community members believe.
My favorite poll results, though, are about how deeply unpopular anti-abortion groups are. They are really unpopular. PerryUndem reports that pro-choice groups are +23 points more popular than anti-abortion groups, and that nearly 40% of Trump voters have an unfavorable view of anti-abortion groups—as do one in four respondents who identified as anti-abortion!
It is truly delightful to find out that their own community doesn’t like them. I suppose it shouldn’t surprise me, though; these people really are fucking insufferable. Oh, and Planned Parenthood and other pro-choice groups? They’re more popular than either party in Congress or Trump.
What we do with all of this information is another question. I’m especially interested in how we can use the anti-abortion movement’s unpopularity against them. It feels like we haven’t fully capitalized on just how deeply off-putting they really are.
Legislation Watch
I know today’s newsletter is chock-full of weirdos, I’m sorry. Just two days after I warned about this particular campaign, Students for Life has made good on their promise to push legislation that claims abortion medication and fetal remains are poisoning the groundwater.
In what they’re calling a legislative “blitz,” the anti-abortion, anti-contraception organization is working with Republicans in five states to pass “Clean Water For All” bills.
As you know by now, there is no scientific evidence to Students for Life’s claims. They’re simply trying this tactic out because they know that while abortion bans are incredibly unpopular, saving the environment is very popular. Especially with young people, their particular demographic.
In fact, POLITICO reports that the group isn’t really hiding the fact that the move is a totally cynical one. Check out what vice president Kristi Hamrick told the audience at the group’s conference this weekend:
“This is not because the environment was my first weapon of choice—it’s because it’s the one we have now…Environmental law has teeth. It already exists. And, frankly, I’m for using the devil’s own tools against them.”
And as I’ve reported previously, anti-abortion groups are less concerned about the environment than they are ensuring that women are sufficiently shamed for having abortions. Remember what these bills would do: force women who have abortions to bag up their blood as medical waste and bring it back to their doctor for ‘proper’ disposal.
In Wyoming, for example, Students for Life worked with Rep. John Bear to introduce HB0159, a bill to “protect water from chemical abortion waste.” The legislation would require that doctors prescribing abortion medication provide “a catch kit and medical waste bag to the patient, including instructions for the patient on how to use the catch kit and to bring the catch kit and medical waste bag to the health care provider for proper disposal.”
The humiliation is the point. Anti-abortion activists and protesters are furious that women don’t have to go through a gauntlet of screaming protesters, and that they have the ability to end their pregnancies in the privacy of their home. How dare we be allowed an iota of dignity?
Oh, and remember when I said that most Americans don’t like anti-abortion groups? This is why: Students for Life president Kristan Hawkins likened herself to Erin Brockovich in a recent interview. Girl. Come on.
In the Nation
For more reading on Kennedy’s hearing, read Mother Jones, HuffPost, The Guardian, and The 19th;
Axios looks at how Trump’s anti-trans efforts mirror how we’ve seen Republicans attack abortion rights;
And finally, a gripe: I truly never want to see another call for Democrats to have a ‘big tent’ on abortion rights. Sorry, but there’s no room in my tent for someone who doesn’t believe I’m a full human being.
“I truly never want to see another call for Democrats to have a ‘big tent’ on abortion rights. Sorry, but there’s no room in my tent for someone who doesn’t believe I’m a full human being.” This. Thank you, Jessica.
WTF do marriage and birth rates have to do with transportation? Married people need better roads than anyone else? Just when I think Republicans can’t surprise me anymore — oops, they did it again.